In U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,807, there is disclosed an apparatus in which such objects are fed to a horizontally extending run of an endless belt where they pass beneath an examination apparatus which, together with a control apparatus, determines whether the objects have a certain characteristic or characteristics, and then separates the objects into different streams in dependence upon whether they have or fail to have such characteristics.
In the previously known apparatus, however, since the objects are viewed while on the said horizontally extending run, they can in practice only be viewed from above since, if they are also viewed from below, any viewing means disposed below the horizontally extending run will quickly be affected by any liquid or debris associated with the objects and will therefore become non-functional. Even if the objects are viewed from below after leaving the horizontally extending run, the viewing means are likely to become quickly non-functional.